Marvel Comics artist Stan Goldberg dies at 82

Artist Stan Goldberg, a linchpin of Marvel Comics' rise in the 1960s and a stalwart of Archie Comics for 40 years, died Sunday at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx following a stroke on Aug. 13. He was 82, and had homes in Hampton Bays and Queens.

A 2011 inductee into the National Cartoonists Society Hall of Fame, Goldberg in the early 1960s was the colorist responsible for designing the costume colors of such new Marvel superheroes as Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four.

He spent years drawing the humorous adventures of Marvel's Millie the Model, and went on to bring his comedic sensibilities to a host of Archie Comics series, serving for a decade through 2006 as primary artist of the flagship title, "Archie."

Goldberg's final work, in a uniquely appropriate amalgam, may be an Archie-style Spider-Man story, "That Parker Boy," for the upcoming comic "Marvel's 75th Anniversary Special."

"It was an honor to work with him," said Jim Salicrup, editor-in-chief of the comics publisher Papercutz, for which Goldberg recently did licensed-character titles starring Nancy Drew and The Three Stooges. "We publish graphic novels for all ages, and his artwork and clear storytelling were absolutely ideal for what we do."

Born in New York City on May 5, 1932, Goldberg was still in his teens when he became a staff colorist for Marvel's predecessor, Timely Comics, in 1949. He became the coloring department manager as Timely segued into its 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics.

Goldberg also was drawing horror comics for the company as early as 1952, and succeeded Dan DeCarlo on the popular "Millie the Model" in 1959.

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By then he had become a freelancer, and in that capacity worked as acolorist for the fledgling Marvel Comics. Collaborating with editor and head writer Stan Lee on the earliest stories of Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and other heroes, "I was creating the color schemes on all those characters," he said in a 2005 interview.

At the end of the 1960s, Goldberg briefly drew teen-humor titles for DC Comics and then settled into a four-decade run at Archie Comics. One of his favorite jobs was a 1994 Marvel/Archie joint production in which Riverdale High teen Archie Andrews crossed paths with Marvel's remorseless vigilante, the Punisher.

After 2010, when work became scarce at Archie, he drew for Bongo Comics' "Simpsons Comics," Papercutz and others, including an anti-bullying educational comic for the organization Rise Above Social Issues.

"My dad was an amazing father to both my brother Bennett and me," said his son Stephen, an advertising agency media director. "He always took great interest in whatever was going on in our lives. He was also a doting grandfather who just adored his four grandchildren. He was married to my mom for a truly loving 53 years that was evident by them still holding hands wherever they went."

In addition to his sons, he is survived by his wife, Pauline Mirsky Goldberg. The couple's daughter, Heidi, was slain in 1984 at age 19 at the College at Old Westbury. A Syosset man was convicted of the murder.

A graveside service will be held Tuesday at Beth Moses Cemetery in West Babylon.